As a little girl, Wren had always dreamed of her fairy tale ending. She wanted the house in the suburbs with the white picket fence, the husband who swept her off her feet as soon as he walked through the door, and the child who she would've done anything for. In her early twenties, Wren had achieved only one of those…until her daughter was cruelly snatched from her grasp.

In her teens, Wren had stopped looking for her Prince Charming. She'd quickly learned that every man had his faults, and had chosen to settle for the first guy who'd offered to take her to prom. Everyone had always told her that David was bad news, but she didn't want to hear it. Frankly, Wren didn't think that she could do better and, after a few years of dating, she figured that it was too late to move on. Especially when she fell pregnant with Ruby during his six month stint in jail.

Sure, David was lazy, rude and sometimes violent…but he was her childhood sweetheart, and she had made so many memories with him.

But those memories had been tainted following the accident.

And now, at the age of twenty-seven, Wren didn't care at all for love. Especially now that the world had come to an end. Love had changed Wren, made her more cynical and distrusting of people. She didn't want to let another man into her life, not only because she was scared of being hurt again, but because she was scared that she was no longer capable of love, that her absolute failure of a marriage had caused her to close that part of herself off forever.


A knock on her door woke Wren in the middle of the night.

Assuming it was Negan coming to give her a lecture, probably coming to take back his knife, Wren shouted at the door. "For fuck's sake Negan, it's not even seven!"

When the knocking persisted, getting louder, Wren quickly went to answer. "I'm coming! You know, if you're trying to win my favour you're going about it really wrong…" Only to be surprised to see her ex-husband standing at the door. Again.

"Wren, we need to talk."

She could instantly smell the alcohol on his breath and frowned. "Thought you'd stopped drinking."

"Decided to treat myself. I feel like I've earned it." David took a step forward, inviting himself into Wren's room, but she blocked his path. "What? I just wanna talk."

"I don't want to talk." Wren said firmly. "I already told you several times that I don't want anything to do with you."

Their stark difference in stature meant that it was easy for David to push his way into the room, closing the door behind him.

Wren frowned, "you need to leave."

"Why'd you think I was Negan?" David asked, leaning against the wall for support.

"That's none of your business."

"You fucking him?" David's tone was tense and he grabbed Wren's wrist.

She rolled her eyes. "Really David? You're paranoid that I'm sleeping with a guy I can't stand…" She paused, "although, that being said, I guess that's what I was doing when we were married right?"

David's grip on her wrist tightened at that. "We were happy."

Wren laughed bitterly, "no we weren't! You were just too drunk to see it. I told you, I stopped loving you a long time ago. Months before Ruby died, before you killed her."

"No, no. I know that you don't mean that." He stumbled slightly. "I never stopped loving you and I know you feel the same. There's always been a spark between us since we were kids. I strayed away every now and then sure, but I always came back to you didn't I? If you were so unhappy you could've left, but you never did. You stayed by my side because you loved me."

Wren yanked her hand away. "And staying with you is something I'll always regret. I was trapped with you, David. It wasn't much of a life, I wasn't free."

"Sure you were." David grinned and reached out to stroke Wren's cheek, but she slapped his hand away. "What? You let other guys touch you but not your husband?"

"You think I enjoyed what I had to do?!" Wren's hands were shaking as memories of her past flooded back. "I came home feeling ashamed – dirty – because of what I had to do to keep our family off the streets!" She hit him. "I hate you!" Again. "I fucking hate you!"

Wren was angry. She was so damn angry. She blamed David for everything that had gone wrong in her life; her dropping out of college, having to sell her dignity, the death of their daughter…

"Hey! Calm down!" David grabbed Wren by the shoulders. "We can make this work, baby. I've changed, you'll see that soon. Gimme a chance, yeah?"

"I don't want you." Wren hissed.

David shoved Wren onto the bed and quickly pinned her down with the weight of his large body. "I swear to you, I've changed. Why won't you let me prove it?!"

"Get off me!" Wren shouted, but David was quick to cover her mouth. She thrashed her legs desperately as David moved his other hand to her shirt.

"Relax…" He grabbed her shirt and ripped it open, sending the buttons flying onto the floor. Wren could feel her heart beating loudly in her chest, thrashing as wildly as her body. She couldn't breathe…she needed to escape…

She needed to escape the ghost of her past.

Wren bit down hard on David's hand, which caused him to jolt up, but the weight of his body still pinned her down. "What the fuck?! Has this shitty world turned you into some kind of animal?!"

Breathing heavily, Wren took the chance to reach into her bedside drawer, holding out the knife that Negan had given her.

"What're you gonna do with that?" David smirked, looking at Wren as though she were prey, a small, weak thing that only existed for his amusement. He'd always looked at her that way, but only now could Wren see the predatory look.

She couldn't stand it.

"Leave. I'm warning you." She pointed the knife in his direction, hand trembling, eyes watering.

"You don't have the guts. You need me. You want me." His hand was now firmly on Wren's thigh, his hard stare burning her skin. Flinching at the contact, as David's hand moved higher, Wren panicked and dug the knife straight into his hand.

David stopped, looking at her with a mix of confusion and anger that was terrifying. "You fucking bitch!" He lunged at her, truly becoming the predator.

But Wren wasn't going to be the helpless prey this time.

She quickly stabbed him in the chest, then again, until he stopped. Fell down from the bed. Silent.

As soon as he hit the ground, Wren burst into tears; her body shaking as she stared at the body of her ex-husband, bloody and still on the floor. "You made me do this!" She screamed, looking down at her blood-stained hands. They didn't seem like hers, it was as though someone else had taken the wheel just for a second, and now Wren was left with the consequences. With her ex-husband's body on the floor.

It was her or him, Wren knew that, but she never thought that she'd go through with it. She was a murderer.

Would Negan have her banished? Exiled in the middle of nowhere with no food or weapons…

Or would he execute her for her crime?

"I didn't want to do that!" She cried, hunching her knees up to her chest as she stared down at the body. "You made me! I didn't want to!"

Wren didn't know how much time passed after that. It could've been hours. She was in a state of shock, staring blankly at the body before her, the one that she'd put there. Stripped him of life without a second thought. She hated David so much, but she hated herself for what she'd done even more.

But she was soon brought out of her trance by the sound of groaning…


Meanwhile, Negan was on his way to the laundry room to check up on Wren once again. He'd seen how upset she'd been the night before after her encounter with David and wanted to make sure that he hadn't hurt her. That he wouldn't need to step in.

But when he arrived she wasn't there.

"Where's Wren?" Negan asked the other women, none of them answered. "Where the hell is Wren?"

They looked down anxiously. "We haven't seen her all morning." One of the younger girls, Hannah, whispered. She had been Wren's neighbour since the stubborn leader's arrival at The Sanctuary and had tried to befriend her on more than one occasion. "I heard shouting from her room when I passed…I decided to leave her, I didn't think she'd be late…"

"Who was she arguing with?" Negan asked, "her brother?"

"I…I don't think so…" Hannah shook her head, glancing up to face Negan. "She sounded angry. So did he…"

"And you didn't think to fucking check on her?!" Negan shouted, panic washing over him. "Shit!" He grabbed Lucille and quickly ran out of the room, and towards Wren's.

Negan heard her screams from outside the door and kicked it down, not wasting any time in bashing the walker's skull in right before it closed in on the young woman.

"What the shit!" Negan looked at Wren when he realised that the walker was David, and saw the blood that stained the room. And the knife that he'd given her sticking out of the dead man's chest. "What the fucking shit, Wren?!"

Then Negan noticed that Wren's blouse had been ripped open, and that she was terrified…he was able to piece some of the puzzle together.

"It's okay…" He told her, trying to ignore David's corpse right in front of her. He used Lucille to push him off the bed, out of the way so that he could see Wren. She was all that mattered in that moment. She was afraid, it was a look he'd seen countless times since all of this began. "Did he…did he hurt you…"

Wren shook her head tearfully, her eyes still transfixed on the body on the floor.

Negan frowned, "I'm getting you outta here." He reached out his gloved hand to Wren, who cowered slightly. "You can trust me, I'm not a bad guy."

What happened after that was a blur to Wren. It all felt like a bad dream, like a scenario concocted in the darkest recesses of her mind. She tried to stand but her legs felt like jelly, her body crumbling under the weight of her guilt.

Then her body hit the floor, and all she could hear was Negan frantically calling her name as she faded out of consciousness.


A/N

Thanks for reading! Please review if you have the time - lucie x